loved the video and featured great information that i will take into consideration as my girlfriend from Vietnam talked to me about living part in Oahu and part time in Vietnam

You had me at yuzu kosho senbei! 😄 Need to try that!

Hawaii would've been better off giving a $10,000 stimulus check to every Hawaii resident instead of building the rail. At least that would've been cheaper for the state.

Closest ill get to riding it cuz i dont think ill ever have a reason to use it lol

The Nitori experience sounds like the Home Depot kind of deal

I live near the Hō’ae’ae Station and believe me, No one ever uses it. All of our taxes for nothing😂

Tracks are built from the train yard out. That's why they started from the west end instead of from town.

The station doors look quite slow. If in the future, they expect millions to ride this thing then it has to be faster. Also disappointing it doesn't say your current amount in your card but I hope that is an easy fix.

Thanks for giving your perspective (one especially from someone who has lived in Japan). Transportation oriented development around stations is really barebones and I wish it was given more consideration. We are way far out from the kind of public transporation and TOD that Japan has (live your whole life completely without a car), but this is better than nothing. It's weird that the outside of a station is a parking lot instead of a walkable neighborhood. It's disappointing too that some of the stations look dirty/full of dirt.

02:27 Sad to say but so true.

Ybaan

Yban

This is what happens when you have something planned, built and operated by morons. HART should give the rail to Kintetsu or Hankyu and let them develop around the stations

no 5 minute cities here(good thing)

The rail to nowhere. Why doesn’t it go to Kapolei Mall?

I live near a station and take it at least once a week, I would use it more but I already live near my school so I just take TheBus to school. I am a rail supporter and hope to see it succeed

Our rail is a joke

Really nice video and I like your style of reporting. Initially I watched the new train on Oahu video and subscribed. Wife and I live in Japan and daughter is also on Oahu.

250k per day to maintain😂

Love your view on the ridership. I thought the same too, why are the doors dirty, when no one rides it, also the buttons are “rusting” already… Yes, touch screen will help I appreciate your views, hoping more ppl will ride it once it goes to the Airport.

Did you know $600 million dollars went missing that was supposed to build the rail? Corruption in Hawaii is obvious.

I enjoyed your review. Tokyo and many cities have efficient metro systems. Since a lot of groundwork has already been done, there’s no need to start from scratch. We could easily learn from others. Unfortunately, HART missed many opportunities to fulfill their mission to provide mass transit for the majority of residents. The goal is to make it easier for people to quickly commute to popular places, such as downtown Honolulu, colleges, malls, and as you suggested grocery stores. The lack of a direct connection from the rail station to Pearlridge mall is a missed opportunity for everyone. Another example is Ka Makana Alii mall in Kapolei. The last stop is 1 mile from the mall. This area is a relatively new development. It would have made sense to stop at the mall, which has a grocery store, nearby pharmacy, movie theater and restaurants. There are residents and UH West Oahu students along the rail line that could easily hop on. I drive 30 minutes to my destination. If I took the bus, it will take 1 hour and 25 minutes. If I take a combination of the bus and rail, it will take 1 hour and 35 minutes. Perhaps it could be shortened when the rail line services additional areas. I don’t think by much. The lack of common sense and design was flawed from the beginning. Surely, many well-established cities have built a metro system, there is no reason why Hawaii can’t do the same. It comes down to leadership. Lastly, I believe there are no public restroom facilities. After criticism, HART stated that if you have an emergency, staff members will provide a key to their restrooms. Access to restrooms for paying customers is quite common in many places.

Allowing to pay by debt or credit card is the only advantage for Hawaii.

congrats Barrett! great video

What a waste it's not going all the way to Waikiki or uh 👎

Thank you for this vlog. I live on the Westside and haven't even tried Skyline yet. The ticket buttons already looked like there was rust. I wish they planned it better since I would take it to Ala Moana or Waikiki to save on gas and parking.

This train is magnitudes better than the dirty Muni and BART trains in the SF Bay Area.

Hey Howzit, just stumbled to your channel. Im a transit planner in Honolulu, thank you for not having too high of expectations for your first rail experience ! Haha, i literally thought you would destroy it with your experiences from Japan bur you had realistic expectations. The main purpose of rail in Oahu is commuting people west to town and back really. Because it is not completed ridership will be as you see it 🤣. Convenience stores and machines will take a very long time to come to these stations because of legal , contract, and bills that would be needed to regulate it (this may happen once rail is fully conpleted years from now). The project itself has a "build it and they will come" mentality. Hence transit oriented development (meaning building homes and busineses around the rail station) is in its infancy. Also Oahu is limited in land, high in land regulations, and obstructed by budget limits and govt procetures that make it so difficult to emulate Asian and even Mainland standards. It's not that we dont know how to make a good rail system, it's just we are so limited in finacial and technical resources, and constraints with legal and govt red tape and policies. A lot of it contributed to leading to mismanagement and hence the long years of sorting the project through.

I almost always go to Japan in the summer. People with young kids are usually limited by the school calendar as far as vacation is concerned

Metal buttons are because “people” hooligans scratch up the screens with graffiti in the US. Buttons allow them to keep working. That people in general aren’t a holes and respect property in Japan is why so many of us would like to live there

Hawaii has a rail? Is it in the big island? Wasn't even aware! Ridership must be low as it's such a small island and you can go anywhere by car.

Another great video! Doing a more in-depth video on some of the more mundane stuff like bank accounts and what-not might be interesting and useful to folks. For example, are you able to maintain a single account that would be accessible both in the U.S. and Japan through the same bank? (Thinking of a big bank like CitiBank or maybe Sanwa.). Or are you forced to maintain separate accounts for both countries. Please continue making these videos - and try not to burn yourself out!

It's been a while, glad to see you back! Japan has one of the best transit infrastructure in the world!

Fukuoka airport and Hakata station were my first introduction to Japan earlier this year. I can thoroughly recommend it as somewhere to get acclimatised after a long haul flight which for me was from the UK. Spent two days there before heading up to Hiroshima, Osaka and Tokyo. Japan was such an enjoyable experience I had to get back as soon as I could, I will be returning this October and it will again be my first port of call. This video has given me some tips for exploring a Fukuoka a little more. Thank you.

People are greedy rip off.what do eat dog food.

nobody asked Howmochi the renovation cost?

Why no barbecue?

Oh boy I thought Tokio has renter friendly. I live in Switzerland, and we pay 2500,- Swiss frace for 135 qm. We do live in the country because the city is just too expensive. 50am for 2000,- and more.

how many square meters is this? tokyo is so expensive! with this kind of rent, you can rent 2 mansions in Hanoi (maybe 3) lol

Hey man, nice video! I recommend an anytime fitness gym membership. It’ll work at any anytime fitness in the world, so worth looking into if you are going back and forth.

Hi, where is Meat Papa? Link? Thanks

It’s a 7 hr flight from Hawaii to Japan. It’s not that bad. I go back and forth from NY to Tokyo, the 14 hours flight is killing me every time with 1 week jetlag and neck pain

If I may ask, just pure curiosity, how much you pay per kWh ( electricity ) and per m³ ( natural gas )? Great video btw, GE GE!!!

Do you think it will eventually take a toll both in your work and family life? How is it impacting your family life now? Have you thought about what you would do when you have kids?

I really enjoyed the video, thank you! Reading through the comments and it's your typical yanks complaining about how much rent they pay... get a grip. Is the only topic of conversation you lot can have centered around money?

You are certainly not alone. I live on the east coast but travel every year back to Asia because that’s where my family lives. I never really feel like adapted to US permanently at least culturally. I always buy a lot of stuff like household items from Daiso or 3coins or Seria in Japan and bring them back to the US.

I’ll be moving to Japan from Hawai’i next month with husband remaining in Hawai’i. Appreciate any tips for managing business/life in two locations. Do you have two phones for managing MFA sign on to online accounts? Flight deals, etc? BTW, those power outages are a recent thing, it’s so crazy it’s happening in our otherwise modern world, well that and the road conditions 😮

love watching this kind of video as I also go back to Japan once a year. Never heard of the sekken before- I hope I can find one next time in Japan! Seijo Ishii usually got lots of great items for souvenir. Have you tried to go and shop at Kaldi? I also love shopping there. The sunglasses look very cool! Lots of interesting gift items! Thank you for sharing.

Barrett, you are like Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt. They live in Los Angeles but go and stay in their homes in other cities and countries when filming. With all those different clients, you will soon have homes in Los Angeles and Singapore too.

I'm in a similar situation and have done this for over a decade. To drive down cost, I usually just stay at extended stay hotels. I usually have a checklist of things I look for in a hotel. Things like Internet, TV, gym and so on are take care of. I also tend to buy things overseas and bring back to the US. American household and personal care products are generally inferior compared to those in Asia. Its kind of strange to bring those things back to the US. :P